By Kevin Gorman
November 18, 2018
Cam Heyward (97) and T.J. Watt (90) tackle Leonard Fournette in yesterday's 20-16 win in Jacksonville (Karl Roser/Pittsburgh Steelers)
JACKSONVILLE - Mike Tomlin strutted off the sideline and beat his chest with both hands in as emphatic of a reaction to a road victory as you will see from the Pittsburgh Steelers coach, who has a habit of winning them.
The Steelers also have a habit of winning in dramatic fashion, and we watched their worst performance become their best finish in the blink of an eye Sunday, as they rallied from a 16-point deficit to beat the Jacksonville Jaguars, 20-16, in the final seconds for their sixth consecutive victory.
“It was a really awesome fight,” Tomlin said. “The bottom line is, our business is winning. And we took care of business.”
Ben Roethlisberger might have walked away with the game ball after scoring the winning touchdown on a 1-yard keeper, but this wasn’t Big Ben’s best day. At one point, he had completed more passes to the Jaguars than he had to Antonio Brown. And when James Conner wasn’t getting held to 2.8 yards per carry, he was dropping passes.
Make no mistake: The defense won this game for the Steelers, despite not forcing a turnover until the final play of the game. But they sacked Blake Bortles six times for minus-40 yards and held Leonard Fournette to 21 rushing yards on 14 carries in the second half after the power back gouged them by running for 74 yards on 14 carries in the first half.
“I found my comfort in the fact that we were stopping them,” Tomlin said. “There was nothing happening on the other side of the ball that led me to be optimistic.”
The Steelers didn’t allow Roethlisberger’s interceptions to turn into Jaguars touchdowns. They bent but didn’t break in holding the Jaguars to three Josh Lambo field goals for a 9-0 halftime deficit as the offense sputtered to 66 total yards on 25 plays.
“It’s unbelievable when you have a defense that holds them to field goals, field goals, field goals until the third quarter,” Steelers tight end Vance McDonald said. “Honestly, truthfully, on any other team you’d expect to be down by multiple possessions. It’s a testament to them.”
For the final 16:17, the Steelers defense dominated at TIAA Bank Field by holding the Jaguars to three-and-outs on four consecutive possessions, as eight runs and two passes (plus a pair of sacks) accounted for minus-15 yards.
“If you just had one first down on any of those drives, you had a chance to win that football game,” Jaguars coach Doug Marrone said, “and we weren’t able to do that.”
On a third-and-11, cornerback Coty Sensabaugh made one of his seven tackles, on T.J. Yeldon, to force a punt. On the next possession, linebacker Vince Williams and defensive end Cameron Heyward sacked Bortles on back-to-back plays, forcing another punt. Then, nose tackle Javon Hargrave pressured Bortles into an incomplete pass on another third-and-11 to force a punt.
“We were feeding off each other,” said Hargrave, who had his first career two-sack game. “When one person made a play, we were hyped.”
The Steelers finished an 80-yard scoring drive with an 11-yard pass from Roethlisberger to McDonald to cut it to 16-13 with 2:28 remaining. Then came the moment of truth for the defense.
The Jaguars had a chance to put the game away and beat the Steelers for the third time in two seasons. Fournette ran for 4 yards on first down and 1 yard on second down. On a third-and-5 at the Jacksonville 30, everybody inside the stadium knew who was getting the ball. The Steelers called their second timeout with 1:50 remaining.
The Jaguars needed one first down to run out the clock.
“We were going to sell out on that run and see if he could throw it,” Heyward said. “With Fournette in there, you have to think about the run.”
The Jaguars ran Fournette up the middle, as expected. What was unexpected was how cornerback Joe Haden got to Fournette’s ankles, allowing Williams to finish off the tackle for a 1-yard gain and the biggest stop of the game.
“When you don’t make it,” Marrone said, “it’s discouraging.”
Not for the Steelers, who knew that 1:42 was all the time in the world for Roethlisberger to orchestrate a winning drive. The offense scored the winning points, but the defense finished off the victory when T.J. Watt sacked Bortles and forced a fumble that was recovered by Heyward as time expired.
“We all played as a team in the second half and just kept fighting when things weren’t going our way,” Hargrave said. “We’ve been in a fight. I’ve only been here three years but I’ve seen some crazy games here. This only added to the collection.”
For the Steelers defense, this one belongs at the top of the collection.
Kevin Gorman is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Kevin at kgorman@tribweb.com or via Twitter @KGorman_Trib.
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